Salzburg, Day 18, Vienna Philharmonic, Riccardo Muti, Bruckner 8

Wanting to see this concert in particular was the reason I stayed a few extra days. I have had a special appreciation of the Vienna Philharmonic since I owned a box of discs of the Beethoven piano concertos with Friedrich Gulda--their string sound just seemed out of this world. I have heard them in Shostakovich Symphony No. 14, but that is just for strings and percussion (and voice) so I wanted to hear them in a larger work.

The Vienna Philharmonic is a private club and the members of the orchestra make all the decisions regarding artistic and management matters. They were founded in 1842 and are essentially the same members that are in the Vienna State Opera orchestra. Riccardo Muti has conducted them for fifty-four years, to great acclaim. I make all these points because I am a firm believer in the importance of tradition in the arts. The Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Riccardo Muti playing Bruckner's Symphony No. 8 (written between 1884 and 1890) is a rare opportunity to hear tradition in one of its most powerful incarnations.

Before the concert: two harpists tuning and a double-bass player practicing

The Symphony No. 8 by Bruckner requires a large orchestra. By my count there were fifteen first violins, twelve seconds, twelve violas, ten cellos and eight double-basses. There were triple winds (i.e. three clarinets, three flutes, three oboes and three bassoons). Also lots of brass: four trumpets, three trombones, tuba, four Wagner tubas (doubling on French horn), five French horns, oh, and three percussionists. Here they all are:

Acknowledging applause

The Vienna Philharmonic doesn't really do encores, so Maestro Muti had time to ask virtually each member of the orchestra to stand individually--including the very dynamic tympani player.

It was a great concert and I am very glad I stayed. I came close to tears in the slow movement which I really never do. The problem with being a professional musician for much of your life is that you become jaded and isolated from the immediate impact of a great piece of music. So I tried to just let myself respond. This is a terrific piece and they played it with real intensity. If we needed an example of the fruits of Western Civilization, this concert would certainly do.

Wow, this is amazing. I just came from this concert, which was at the matinee hour of 11am and the Festival has already placed it on YouTube. It was put up three minutes ago! Enjoy!

(One caveat: in my opinion you really can't record a large orchestra in a way that feels anything like actually being there in the hall. For example, the tympani sounds really feeble in this recording, but in the hall they were thunderous.)